


Rumor Mill

by theweddingofthefoxes



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Setting, Comfort, Cuddling, Gossip, M/M, Millicent - Freeform, secret meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:09:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28178895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theweddingofthefoxes/pseuds/theweddingofthefoxes
Summary: Everybody has their own suspicions about what Kylo Ren and General Hux get up to in private, but the truth is far more tender than anyone would guess.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 61
Collections: Kylux Secret Santa 2020





	Rumor Mill

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Florentin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Florentin/gifts).



A ship the size of a metropolis is rife with gossip; it can never be stamped out, and even the most loyal officers and fervent troopers aren’t immune. In fact, the higher-ups are especially weak for it, and many a lowly trooper or tech has gotten a pass for being late because they were distracted by something worth being distracted by -- lieutenants smooching majors, contraband pets that have been smuggled inside coats or under hats, that kind of thing. There is plenty of time for it, during exercises, during assigned tasks, in the cafeteria. It barely takes a full day cycle for a particularly juicy sighting or theory to infect the entire ship like a ferocious flu, if it’s good enough.

But a ship this size requires many mouths to pass such gossip along, and everyone knows that a story gets less accurate with every telling. 

Perhaps that’s why no one really knows what’s going on with General Hux and Kylo Ren. 

The first rumor is the most common one, and the closest to the truth. This holds that the two are in some sort of romantic relationship, though ‘romantic’ isn’t quite the word that most of the tellers would use. The assumption that passes from mechanic to pilot to junior officer is that maybe they just are both too arrogant to see anyone below them in rank. The possibility that they might be gentle in private is simply not considered on this ship; all the wagging tongues talk of ferocity and cunning and stifled passion.

(Admittedly, some of these rumors are based more on what certain people on the ship would like to believe than on anything they saw or heard. Kylo Ren sometimes hears flickers of these hopeful thoughts, the way you might hear a voice carrying down a long hallway, and it amuses him to be cast in such a light, though he’d never say it out loud. Such fantasies some of these people create! They’re closer than they know, closer than maybe they themselves actually believe.)

The second one is a grander rumor, a stranger one, but because it’s about them it’s believable. This posits that there is some strange pact between the two, an alliance that is not to be discussed or acknowledged beyond closed doors. Some say that General Hux is secretly Force-sensitive, and he has asked Kylo Ren (the Skywalker heir, really, it’s true, the grandson of Vader) for training. Others insist that it’s the general who is offering advice instead; that Kylo Ren plans to create an enormous army of loyal Darksiders that he needs to properly command. If they are working together it must be for some enormous secret purpose, something so incredible that it requires them to put aside their open loathing for one another in order to achieve. They will take over universes, but they require one another to do it. Some go as far as to maintain -- and they’re not that far off -- that the loathing is all an act so that their eventual galactic coup comes as a surprise. 

Still other people swear all of the above is nonsense. They don’t believe for a second that Kylo Ren and General Hux would willingly be alone together for more than the length of a terse, venomous conversation. They say that all of these stories are just designed to be a distraction, a juicy handful of nothing that keeps everyone from getting bored or tired. Everyone wants to say salacious things about their superiors, but who would truly believe something like that? 

The truth has never been guessed in full. 

That’s how they like it.

There is a place on this ship that the two of them slip away to, though no one can exactly agree where it is or what it is. Is it a storage closet or a secret suite, unknown to all but a chosen few? Neither, it’s General Hux’s quarters, which are strategically isolated from the rank and file, both to allow some privacy and also to give him easy access to the war rooms and conference spaces. Few know exactly where that is, and even fewer know what he’s hiding in there -- a cat the color of an ancient sun, golden-orange, a creature that eagerly trots over to greet him and his guest when they come to slip away for some rest. 

Life here on the ship is stressful, even for those at the top, but it is easier when there is someone to hold you. 

It started after Kylo Ren had been injured on some mission, and Hux’s concern had been too loud inside his head to hide. Even fatigued and radiant with pain, he’d been able to hear the general worrying, and that suggested it was safe to ask if there was a private place where they could talk while he was recovering.

“Perhaps my quarters,” Hux had agreed, knowing his heart had been searched and surprising himself when he realized he hadn’t minded all that much.

Neither of them really knew where it was going to go from there, but they were both awfully satisfied with where it did. The way that Hux had let Kylo lie with his head in his lap like some wild animal made tame, well, nobody on the ship would do anything but laugh after hearing a rumor like that.

Happenstance became habit, which became routine, which became ritual. 

Sometimes it’s just a catnap in the room, the two of them spooned on the wide plain of the general’s bed. They both work hard each day, their lives are loud and bright and on their feet. They can both walk miles just crisscrossing the ship. They both train hard, too. The general is not as broad or muscled as Kylo Ren, but he is no pushover, and he has no interest in being the sort of lazy commander that can’t hold his own in a real fight. Twenty minutes spent dozing can work wonders, even more so if it’s spent in someone’s arms. 

Other times, it is deeper, more yearning, a longer and more meditative session. The lights are lowered and shoes, hats, gloves, they are all neatly put away. No one is expecting them for hours, no one knows where they are, and it is safe to be soft. Like creatures emerging from their shells knowing there are no predators around to peck or swipe, the two of them, or three if you count the orange cat who always wants to be in the crook of an arm or on someone’s chest, are secure. They can spend the night cycle this way, gentle, and leave wordless and restored.

In normal hours, they can snipe and contradict and bark at one another all they please. To the outside observer, to the gossipy officer or curious trooper, it looks like they might just simply hate each other, and it is so satisfying to know that no one will ever catch on. No one reads the way they might briefly nod to each other the right way, or knows the thoughts that Hux puts out like a distress flare for Kylo Ren to read. Come hold me, he says in the way only Kylo hears. I’m so tired, come hold me, we will be safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Kylux Secret Santa is always so much fun! Thanks so much to the mods who keep everything moving smoothly. And thanks to Florentin for asking for such great prompts! I hope you love it.


End file.
